


Zoom

by WanderingBandurria



Series: Quarantine & Other Variations [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Attempt at Humor, Awkward Flirting, Coronavirus pandemic, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mentions of almost every other character from the first order
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:22:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26174155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WanderingBandurria/pseuds/WanderingBandurria
Summary: A meeting over Zoom.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: Quarantine & Other Variations [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1900750
Comments: 18
Kudos: 90





	Zoom

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So, at the beginning of the pandemic, I wrote [this fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23488081) to help me cope - I hope you might give it a chance if you like this one. That one is a magical AU, M rated, so please read the tags.
> 
> So, as you can see in the tags, this is settled in the current scenario of the Coronavirus. I tried to do a "general" pandemic scenario, not really settled in a clear location, but because of that, it might not reflect your experience with the pandemic or the measures currently on place in your country/region/city. Please bear that in mind when reading it, and if you feel this might be too distressing, please consider not reading it. Remember to be mindful of your media consumption, and please, please stay safe, wear a mask, keep social distance, and respect your region's measures to keep people safe.
> 
> All my love goes to my biggest cheerleader and amazing beta, LikeABellThroughTheNight. Thank you for your friendship, thank you for always being excited and happy to read my fics. Love you!!
> 
> Ah, finally, even when there's no clear time frame in this fic, it's settled well into the pandemic, so I'm moving shamelessly James Potter's birthday from March to somewhere between July or August.
> 
> Enjoy!

\---

“Hey, can you hear me?”

The man on the other side of the screen - Remus, Sirius reminds himself - smiles nervously.

“Yeah, I can. Sirius, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Good, I usually have trouble with my microphone. I had to buy a new one, but it hasn’t arrived yet… let me know if, at any point, my voice starts sounding distorted,” he adds, pointlessly, feeling weirdly nervous with the soft eyes of the other man on him.

The man - _Remus_ \- smiles again, but this time there’s something like mischievousness in it. Sirius feels his heart double its rhythm. 

“Okay,” Remus says, and laughs a bit. He reaches forward, and when his hand reappears, there’s a teacup in it. His throat bobs up and down as he drinks before he starts coughing uncontrollably.

“Woah, easy there,” Sirius says, smiling. Remus makes a gesture with his hand - _one minute_ \- and disappears from the screen. Sirius can still hear him cough from afar, and in between wheezes, he hears him mutter _fuck, shit, goddamn_ over and over again.

Sirius has to bite his lip to stop himself from laughing.

“Uh, sorry,” Remus says sheepishly when he reemerges on the screen. “Um. So, how are we going to do this?” he asks, and Sirius’ mind goes blank for a second before he remembers the reason why Remus contacted him.

“Right, yes, Prongs’ birthday. You said in your text that you had some ideas?”

“Um, more like a general notion,” the man says, and Sirius finds himself admiring how his hair shines in the morning light that filters through his curtains. “I was thinking about having something like a Zoom party. Well. Not with the dancing, I think, or at least not from the beginning. I think James would appreciate something more intimate, although dancing would be great too,” and Sirius is lost at the blush that appears at Remus’ face when he talks about dancing _._ Sirius tries to recover, forcing his mind back to the task.

“Yeah, I think we can start with only his closest friends. You can organize his friends from Uni, right? How many are you?” 

“Um, I think Ben, Doc, Dorcas, and I are the closest. There’s a bigger group of about 20 people that we can tell to join later, if you think the party part,” Remus laughs and repeats the words _party part_ a couple of times, and Sirius smiles and can’t stop his heart from beating faster because _this nerd_ , “is a good idea.”

“Yeah, for sure! He’ll be thrilled about it. I can buy some disco lights and make Lily sneak them into his flat so they have a nice party atmosphere. So, okay, to count how many of us we are going to be... from school, there are a few people, but I think we can round it to the Prewett twins, Marls, Peter and Lily, of course. Reggie, my brother, who is here with me. Um. Oh, Mary, for sure. I think that’s it, in the close friends’ department. There are probably around 10 people I can invite for a bigger party later,” he adds, and he can see Remus blushing. He wonders what’s that about.

“Prewetts? As in Fabian Prewett?” he asks and laughs a bit.

“Uh, yeah, do you know him?”

“I had no idea he was friends with James! Never connected that both of them came from the same city. Um, Fab and I, well, we sort of dated last year. We met at the bookstore I worked at,” he says sheepishly, but then he stutters and Sirius’ heart flutters. “It didn’t work out, but there’s no bad blood between us, so don’t worry about James' birthday! We actually became good friends after those two or three weird dates,” Remus adds, talking quickly.

Sirius' heart jumps and his mind races, thinking of last year’s conversations with Fabian. Things fall together as Remus talks.

“Oh! So you are ‘Hot Damn’!” Sirius says without thinking.

“I’m - what??” and at that, Sirius starts laughing openly. Remus is also laughing, and there's surprise in his eyes. He tries to cover his mouth but he's laughing so much that his hand can't muffle the sounds.

“You know - um, I’m sorry, I’m totally betraying Fab right now, but,” Remus snorts loudly at that, giving Sirius a shot of adrenaline. “He told me about you last year, when he was back home, and described you as ‘bookstore dude that was too hot’. We were at his house with his brother, Gideon, and he screamed from the other side of the room, ‘Hot damn!’” Sirius finds himself yelling, imitating Uptown Funk’s chorus, just as Gideon did almost a year ago. He feels proud of himself at Remus’ genuine laughter at that. “So that kinda became your nickname for whenever Fab mentioned you. He talked about you quite a bit because he thought, er, that you, well,” he smiles, cheeky and flirty, because there isn't much to lose, here, isn’t it? “That you were totally my type.”

“Oh my god!” Remus says, as Sirius is still talking, covering his face, but then he peeks through his fingers and seeing Sirius’ soft smile, he lets his hands fall down, showing his flushed face and his crooked teeth. _Perfect for you_ , Fabian had actually said. “Wait, wait, does this mean that you are his friend ‘Bad-boy-vibes-but-actually-Nice-Dude’? Oh, that makes so much sense, that’s why you look so familiar! He showed me some pictures of you. He mentioned that you were moving here in March, but I totally forgot with the, you know, pandemic and all.”

“Yeah, that’s me, I guess!” he laughs again. “I guess we sort of owe a date to each other then, don’t we?” Sirius says, shamelessly, putting his weight on his forearms on the desk to get closer to the camera. _In for a penny,_ and all of that, he thinks, while he bites his bottom lip. He sees Remus almost lose his grip on the teacup, and hears him mutter ‘shit, fuck’. Sirius smiles, trying to transmit some of the warmth he’s feeling through his eyes to the other side of the blue screen where Remus is. He can feel his heart beating wildly. “He sort of confessed to me that he was trying to set us up for when I moved in and that he had already convinced you to go out with me,” he adds, holding his breath while Remus’ fumbles with some napkins to clean his spilled tea. Remus’ ears go bright red.

“Well,” Remus says when he settles back on his chair, and a soft smile appears on his face. “I guess that we sort of do, then.”

They smile at each other, and Sirius is not sure for how long that is, but he knows that, if Regulus had been in the flat, he would've mocked him for looking like an idiot.

“So,” Sirius starts, cooking his head, “ah, can we meet or something? I have a car, so maybe I can pick up some coffee and we can meet from afar - I mean, I can be in my car and you can be outside your home or something like that? That is, if you live in a house. If you live in a flat maybe we can find another option. I don’t know, we can meet in a parking lot, or...” he runs over the different options, trying to find a way to meet Remus. He realizes his hands are all sweaty, so he dries them on his jeans.

Remus smiles - that small smile from the beginning of their conversation, that promises that there’s a lot more to see behind that calm, measured appearance.

“You are in luck because I actually do live in a house,” Remus says, “although only because I have like 5 roommates. 3 by contract, but you know how it works with partners and all, especially with lockdowns coming and going and all of that,” Remus says, with a vague gesture with his hand. “Coffee sounds great. I’m not sure how you'll pass me a cup without us breaking social distance, so I think it’s better if I get my own. I have some nice brews I was saving for some special occasion, so you won’t feel like you are showing off your nice, coffee-shop coffee to me,” he adds, somehow proud of himself. Sirius is not sure why Remus’ confidence about his coffee is so attractive, but _hot damn,_ for sure _._

“Fantastic,” he says, smiling. “Okay, text me your address and I can be there tomorrow at ten, does that work for you?” 

“Morning date? Yeah, that works perfectly for me.”

“Can’t wait,” he says, honestly, and Remus’ eyes go soft, or at least Sirius thinks so, if the camera is not lying.

“Yeah, me neither.”

Sirius smiles and clears his throat to shake himself out of the daze.

“Alright! I actually did have an idea for Prongs' birthday,” and Remus laughs at that, before nodding for him to continue, while he takes a new sip from his tea. “I was thinking we could make presentations about him - like, ridiculous things to try to embarrass him in front of his new and old friends. I don’t know, explaining his nicknames, showing embarrassing pictures, making drawings about him - whatever it is that anyone can do. Marls and Mary are probably going to make an amazing song about his pursuit of Lily, for example. I have tons of pictures, and I’m sure Reg is going to make a hideous slideshow with all the things James did when we moved in with him and his parents. Gid and Fab are a loose bullet, but whatever they do is going to be fantastic. Peter is going to make something soppy, and Lily something beautiful. So, what do you think? Do you think cool-Uni-friends are going to be up for it?” he asks, already knowing his answer because Remus is nodding enthusiastically.

“Of course, that sounds brilliant! We can make a spreadsheet so that everyone puts in what they are going to do, to decide the order and make sure we don’t tell the same anecdote, or at least, to coordinate so it’s told from different perspectives,” and Sirius can see that he’s already typing something on his computer. “Sorry, I have the perfect idea for my presentation, give me a minute to write it down so I don’t forget.”

“Cool! So we can meet with the closest friends around seven on the Saturday after James’ birthday. At five we have a family call with James’ parents, Effy and Monty, so we can send you guys the link and make it a surprise - and Effy and Monty can open the celebration with embarrassing teenager pictures. And then we can tell the rest of the people to arrive at ten, to actually have a dance party?”

“Fantastic. I’ll send you the sheet so we can add the rest,” and Remus smiles so brightly, that Sirius has no option but to smile back.

“Great! Let’s discuss the details by text, if that’s good for you. Maybe we can make a video too, or make sure that everyone has matching glasses so we can do ridiculous things like ‘passing the drink’, or something like that. I actually have tons of ideas, but I have a meeting with my boss in ten,” Sirius says, regretfully, after glancing at the clock. “Remember to text me your address for tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Remus nods, a bit flushed again. “Can’t wait,” he says, honesty, making Sirius feel a bit dizzy at all the possibilities this meeting opened up for him.

“Yeah, can’t wait to see you. It was great meeting you, Remus,” he says, laughing a bit, still almost nervous at the turn of the day.

“It was great finally meeting you too, Sirius,” Remus says, making a weird almost-gun-fingers gesture. He seems to realize what he’s doing in the middle of the action, so he turns red, his eyes going comically big because of the camera. He lets his forehead fall to his hands, and Sirius can’t stop himself from laughing at the endearing gesture. “Alright, alright, you better go now, before I continue to make a fool out of myself,” he says, looking back at the camera with a big, shy smile, while he waves his hand.

“Okay, okay, see you tomorrow, Hot Damn,” he says, laughing.

“See you tomorrow, Mr. Bad Boy with a Golden Heart,” Remus retorts, still waving.

Sirius laughs, and with his own awkward hand wave, presses the red button to end the call.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! Let me know if you did with kudos or comments, they help me to keep the motivation to write! This was my first non-magical AU, so I hope I did okay on the characterizations!
> 
> The "Hot Damn" nickname might, or might not be, based on an ongoing joke about me. Might be, who knows. Still, cringy humour, hope it made you smile.
> 
> Follow me on [Tumblr](https://wanderingbandurria.tumblr.com/) for some ridicolous content & a lot of Wolfstar! You can come and yell to me about them, I love meeting new people!


End file.
